Burberry

Youngme E. Moon; Erika  Kussmann; Emma   Penick; Susan  Wojewoda; Kerry  Herman

Case | HBS Case Collection | October 2003 (Revised January 2004)

Burberry

by Youngme E. Moon, Erika Kussmann, Emma Penick, Susan Wojewoda and Kerry Herman

Abstract

In 2003, Rose Marie Bravo, Burberry's CEO, is debating how to maintain the currency and cachet of the brand across its broad customer base, while entering new product categories and expanding distribution. In the past five years, the brand has become one of the hottest luxury brands in the world. But Bravo now faces a number of key decisions, including (1) which new product categories to enter, (2) how to deal with the appropriation of the brand by nontarget customers, and (3) how prominent the company's famed "check" pattern should be in its advertising and clothing. Includes color exhibits.

Keywords: Brands and Branding; Management Teams; Luxury; Product Launch; Distribution; Product Positioning; Advertising; Market Entry and Exit; Apparel and Accessories Industry; Fashion Industry; United Kingdom;

Format: Print

20 pages

Educators Purchase

Citation:

Moon, Youngme E., Erika Kussmann, Emma Penick, Susan Wojewoda, and Kerry Herman. "Burberry." Harvard Business School Case 504-048, October 2003. (Revised January 2004.)

Starbucks, the dominant specialty-coffee brand in North America, must respond to recent market research indicating that the company is not meeting customer expectations in terms of service. To increase customer satisfaction, the company is debating a plan that would increase the amount of labor in the stores and theoretically increase speed-of-service. However, the impact of the plan (which would cost $40 million annually) on the company's bottom line is unclear.

This (B) case was written as a follow-up to the original case, “Uber: Changing the Way the World Moves” (HBS No. 316-101). It describes a slew of controversial incidents besetting the company in early 2017.

In 2015, Uber is building what may be the largest point-to-point transportation network of its kind; it is literally changing the way the world moves. But unlike traditional transportation logistics companies like FedEx, Uber has an incredibly lightweight infrastructure: it owns no vehicles, employs no drivers, and pays no vehicle maintenance costs. Instead, its network relies on peer-to-peer coordination between drivers and passengers, enabled by sophisticated software and a clever reputation system. But despite its remarkable early success, Uber is an extremely polarizing company. Its business model is highly disruptive, and while disruptive innovation can be a good thing, it is also true that disruptive companies tend to break things. This is certainly true for Uber and is one of the key tensions in the case: Uber's innovative business model is outpacing many of the laws regulating its industry, and while it is going to take the regulatory system some time to catch up, Uber doesn't appear to be willing to wait.

Faculty & Research

Burberry

Abstract

Citation:

About the Author

More from the Author